Happy Birthday To Me!

It's my birthday today!

Woohoo! ;o)

My hubby surprised me this morning with my wonderful gift -- the new ipod nano that just came out on Tuesday! I've been wanting one for years, so I was thrilled. Shocked, too, since our usual budget for eachother's gifts is $40 and this was more than three times that amount. But I love it. I really do.

After my lovely surprise, he took the kids to school which allowed me a couple quiet hours alone to myself.

Of course, I had to craft something!

And what better to craft on my birthday than a birthday card?

I used one of my favorite images that I'd been hoarding.

This darling bunny from Lili of the Valley,

that my new friend Lisa stamped and sent me.

Lisa has an AMAZING blog that you really should check out.

Plus, she's just as sweet as can be!

AND -- I'm happy to say that I will be owning some of my own LOTV goodness very soon -- I placed my first order last weekend, and I cannot wait for them to arrive!

I colored my image with copics,

then cut it out using my cuttlebug and nestabilities dies.

I'd planned on doing a post about how I got my cuttlebug, but I never got around to it, so long story short, they went on sale super cheap at work, and I hinted to my hubby that it would make a good Christmas present for me, especially since he also can get my discount. He tried to get it, but we were sold out and he had to get a raincheck. Then he had to tell me, because I had to keep checking the stockroom so I could grab one when they came back in stock. It took almost two months to come in, but when it did, I got the only one! (Since then, we've gotten more.) Since I already knew about it, hubby decided just let me keep it. The week after that, Nestabilities were on sale for 40% off, plus my discount on top of that, so I got a couple at less than $8 a piece. Pretty good, considering retail price is $24.99!

But back to the card...

I covered my balloon with stickles, let it dry, then covered it with glossy accents and let that dry.

The effect is so cool! I don't think you can tell in the pic, but it looks as if the glitter is floating in the glossy accents.

To assemble the card, I used white Bazzill cardstock, covered with patterned paper from Basic Grey's Kioshi collection. I then added a strip of glittery paper from Colorbok and tied on some Orsay ribbon. I stamped my sentiment from Hampton arts, popped that and my image off with dimensional adhesive. The purple polkadot cardstock behind my image and sentiment is also Bazzill. 

Cute, no?

It looks good in my office, so I'm going to keep this one to display. :o)

After I finished the card, my husband picked me up and took me out to lunch at my favorite restaraunt -- Red Lobster, and later I got to go to my local scrapbooking store where I picked up some beautiful new paper. It was such a good day, and I feel so spoiled.

But as if all that were not enough, guess what I found in my mailbox when I came home.

Doesn't this just make you want to squeal?

Sooooo cute!

I actually won a blog giveaway over at the lovely and super-talented Lynette's blog on Monday night, and she let me pick out a stamp set from Lawn Fawn's new release. This Cozy Christmas set is SO me. Quirky and fun. I can't wait to use it. If you've never used Lawn Fawn stamps before, I recommend them highly. They are wonderful! Really great quality, exceptional service (Hello, I WON on Monday night and it ALREADY got here?), and some of the cutest images on the planet. I own two other sets of theirs and I love them so much. They stamp just beautifully.

Okay, well I'm going to go now and have a

chocolate covered strawberry.

Mmmm.

I told you I feel spoiled today!

Have a great night, ladies!